Saturday, October 13, 2012

Researching multiple roles and ecologies

One of the great things of studying online is that you can work at your own pace. I have been very busy over the last weeks, getting prepared for the annual ULearn conference in New Zealand, so I had to pause for a while my VS MOOC attendance. As always, this year ULearn was a successful conference with over 300 workshops to select from! I'm now back on track with the VC MOOC course, focusing on the third topic - Research into K-12 online learning - and the question: Given your specific interest in K-12 virtual schooling research, where are questions left unanswered? Why is that question (or those questions) important?Having a specific interest in blended teaching and learning, this is where I would like to focus on regarding this question. Blended earning is
developing fast in educational providers around the world. We have many
teachers implementing a range of online tools in their face to faceclasses, as a way toenhance students' learning experience and we
also have another type of blend with online distance courses that students can
take in addition to the face to facecourses that their schools offer, as for
example courses through the Virtual Learning Networkhere in NZ.Across
the literaturethere
are a range of advantages thatblended approaches involve for school students,
such as increased flexibility, independent learning and enhanced collaboration
opportunities. However, the effective implementation of blended
approaches is a complex process with many threads connecting to make it happen (Davis,
2008). It is not only a matter of
teacher, school leader and student
readiness, since there are other individuals and their organizations within and
beyond the school that have an important role in the effective implementation
of blended approaches.

Taking an ecological perspective, Davis
presented the arena of change with digital technologies, aiming to clarify this
complexity (Davis, 2008; Davis, Eickelmann & Zaka, in press). The arena
shows that change with ICT in classrooms depends on the schools in which they
are embedded in; schools are also nested within a wider ecosystem that includes
additional organizations that can impact on change with ICT in a classroom/school.
Therefore, in addition to teachers, students and school leaders, there are
other educational stakeholders whose roles are important in the whole process,
such as individuals in professional, bureaucratic, political and commercial
organizations. And as blended teaching and learning continues to grow, there are a
range of roles and responsibilities in different ecologies that research needs
to clarify, in order to develop best practices.

References:

Davis, N. (2008). How may teacher learning be promoted for educational
renewal with IT? Models and theories of IT diffusion. In J. Voogt and G. Knezek
(eds), International handbook of information technology in primary and
secondary education (pp.507-519). New York: Springer.